The Method for Grilled Cheese
This is the best method for grilled cheese that I’ve come up with. It works best if you have a toaster over, but an oven broiler would work too.
Throughout my history of devouring grilled cheese, a few problems were always present. How do you melt the cheese without burning the bread? How do you get a nice golden brown bread that’s not sopping with butter? And most of all, how can I cook enough grilled cheese for my family at the same time when each sandwich half takes two spots on my griddle?
I’ll share the secret. This makes a great grilled cheese for the kiddos, and you can add pickled vegetables or whatever for the adults. The power of this method is the ability to control timing, and add whichever items you want without making the method fall apart.
Prepare the obvious items for a grilled cheese, plus some extras:
whole grain sandwich bread, sliced
cheddar & monterrey jack cheese, sliced thin
whole grain or dijon mustard for the adults
pickled vegetables sliced thin for the adults
mayonnaise
Now here’s the method, using a toaster oven for melting and a skillet for browning.
Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat.
Toast the bread slices on the toaster rack until light.
Remove toast. Spread mustard (if using) on one slice per sandwich.
Add sliced cheeses in desired proportions to both slices of toast per sandwich.
Place the cheesy toast slices on a toaster tray (so cheese doesn’t drip) and toast again on light.
Remove melted cheesy toasts and add vegetables or other things (if using).
Carefully fold together the two sides of the sandwich so the cheese holds it together.
At this point your skillet should be hot; thinly spread mayonnaise along one side of each sandwich; place mayonnaise side down on the skillet.
Thinly spread mayonnaise along the other side of each sandwich as it rests in the skillet.
After a surprisingly short time, perhaps a minute or less, check the underside for desired browning and flip each sandwich.
Brown other side until desired and then remove from pan.
Note that slicing the sandwiches in half while the cheese is still freshly hot could cause the cheese to run a bit out of the sandwich, but that’s part of the fun.
This method of double-toasting the sandwich in the toaster over before browning prevents blackening the sides and leaving a raw interior. The mayonnaise helps the sandwich brown much faster than butter, and also prevents the bread from sopping up too much melted butter, which can lead to a grimacingly greasy meal. If adults add too many fixings to the sandwich after the cheese has melted, it’s simple enough to add another layer of cheese on one side and just toast again to melt it; the cheese is necessary to glue the sandwich together, but like a Big Mac, you can just keep adding layers if you wish. We’ve had great success with adding mushrooms, cucumber, green garlic, carrots, celery, and cabbage, all glued together with an extra layer of pepper jack. That recipe will come later as John’s Crunchy Crunchy, so keep an eye out.
